Sir — I wonder what is there to celebrate in Jawaharlal Nehru’s ideas as his legacy. If it means to err on the wrong side of history, for no reason, then at the top of it, comes the Kashmir issue. Kashmiri Pandits are the worst sufferers of this legacy. Should they celebrate it or mourn the idea behind going to the United Nations, or of accepting ceasefire when Indian troops were about to clear the State of Jammu & Kashmir from Pakistani invadersIJ
But for Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s intervention, Hyderabad and Junagadh too would have figured in Nehru’s legacy, and left us with a truncated India. Was Sardar Patel’s cautious approach vis-à-vis China ignored only to bequeath a legacyIJ Even a naïve person would have acted differently than Nehru. If Nehru’s legacy pleases the Congress, so be it. But we as the inheritors of that troublesome past must introspect and regret.